Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.

When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.

fiction is the great lie that tells the truth

Life ain't the movies.

Twenty years after we had left so fierce and proud, we were all right back where we had started, yoked to each other and the same old drama.

I was no Cherokee. I was no warrior. I was nobody special. I was just a girl, scared and angry. When I saw myself in Daddy Glen's eyes, I wanted to die. No, I wanted to be already dead, cold and gone. Everything felt hopeless. He looked at me and I was ashamed of myself. It was like sliding down an endless hole, seeing myself at the bottom, dirty, ragged, poor, stupid.

I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.